Anime Review: Overman King Gainer

Well, seeing as I have some time left before I go to bed, I decided this was as good a time as any to try and write a review of a series I just finished watching. Now I'm kind of torn in general on whether its better to write a review as soon as possible after finishing it, or whether its better to sit back and wait on it a bit and reflect. But for right now, I want to try and get some of this out while I'm still thinking about it and while I feel like writing. And so without further ado, I present to you my review of "Overman King Gainer".

Sometime in the future, the world underwent some kind of dramatic environmental change, because human civilization had become too advanced. Reflecting on its ways, humanity decided to move into large Domeopoli, away from the rich and fertile areas of the Earth so that the plants and animals could recover. So says the vertical text scroll during the opening sequence of "Overman King Gainer" and honestly you don't really ever get much more background or setting than this. The show itself begins in a confusing blur as apparent gamer nerd Gainer Sanga wins his 200th consecutive video game battle and is awarded the title of game king. The next day at school, he is promptly arrested on suspicion of Exodus (and no explanation for why or what that means) and is thrown into jail. There he meets and follows a man named Gain Bijou who breaks out of the cell, uses Gainer's help to steal a mecha (called an Overman), kidnap the daughter of the local magistrate (who eagerly jumps into the cockpit proclaiming that she's going to be a hostage) and fights several more mechs while the Exodus begins.

Seriously all of that happens in the first episode. You don't really get an idea of what an Exodus is for a couple more episodes, and why Gainer was even arrested for it in the first place is never answered. Perhaps even more inexplicable is Gainer himself. As a character Gainer is one-dimensional at best, he's the pilot of the titular Overman, King Gainer (which he named after his gaming nick) and most of the other attempts at his characterizations seem taped on. After the first episode, he spends the next several kind of whining about how much he hates the Exodus, how he was tricked into coming along, and how betrayed he feels because he trusted Gain Bijou. I read a review of the first few episodes that compared whiny Gainer to Shinji from "Evangelion" but I never hated Gainer the way I hate Shinji; in fact, i didn't really feel anything at all. Despite his whining he dutifully hops into the cockpit of his mech without any real hesitation and fights the forces of the Siberian Railways, the series antagonists. Heck, even if he didn't think he was going to go on an Exodus, you can't help but wonder what he thought he would do after breaking out of jail, brandishing a gun and assaulting several guards, stealing a giant robot and wrecking the city in the escape. Eventually his reason for hating the Exodus is revealed (his parents were murdered by pro-Exodus forces) but the revelation comes out in the middle of a completely unrelated fight. He just blurts it out for no reason, and although that plot point comes up again in the later half of the series, no real reason is given for the murders and no real implications occur due to the second revelation. These kind of character inconsistencies are not specific to Gainer, but his are probably the most notable as he's the apparent main character.

Having said that, for a good portion of the series it's his mentor, Gain Bijou, who really steals the show. The mysterious Exodus specialist hired to prepare everything, he's the cool, collected, mysterious drifter that everyone seems drawn to. And a fair number of Gainer's victories are really only possible due to Gain's interference. It's largely due to Gain and his past that the series gets one of its recurring villains, Asuham Boone, but that relationship never really strays from two central points: Asuham's sister once had a fling with Gain and was heartbroken that Gain left, Asuham will do anything to capture Gain and take him back to his sister. His devotion to this task is almost laughable and his motives and methods take a bizarre turn for the crazy near the show's climax. Speaking of the villains, for the most part they're a gaggle of goons: there's a troop of about three or four henchmen who consistently show up and manage to bungle things up, and even their superiors never really manage to be menacing in the least.

Now I've been ragging on this series a fair amount so far, so you must be wondering "If it's so bad, why did you keep watching it?" Well to be honest, the show isn't all that bad. I found it to be kind of charming, and some of the stuff like the bumbling villains and the creative and bizarre mecha designs (more on that later) seem to try and evoke a retro/nostalgia type feeling. It's not really any one thing I can put my finger on, but the vibe of the show really did remind me of some of the classic giant robot shows of the 70's/80's. The series' opening I think has a lot to do with that. A catchy tune with lyrics like "King... King... King Gainer! Metal Overman King Gainer!" and "Metal Full Coat!" (in Engrish) set to the various characters and mechs from the series doing The Monkey (aka. the Jonny Bravo Dance) is just oddly charming. From a technical aspect, the animation is fairly consistently above average and the characters fairly distinctive.

Speaking of character designs, I have to talk a little bit about some of the bizarrely creative mecha designs this show sports. When I first heard about this series, I read that the director was Yoshiyuki Tomino, creator of the Gundam series, so I kind of expected the same kind of samey, giant human shaped robots. The titular King Gainer by contrast, although it is human shaped, has a giant fishbowl for a head and dreadlocks. Another one has what appears to be a large purple horn with lights on it and a detachable cape. Another is a big ball of goo that freely morphs into different configurations and shapes. The big boss mech at the end has three eyes, a kind of... bat face, and six arms. Crazy stuff. In addition to all of these Overmen, there are more down to earth, work oriented mechs like the Panthers and Dogodzos, which have that kind of awkward, mass produced type look to them as opposed to the unique, one-off looks of the Overmen.

Ultimately, I can't help but feel the "Overman King Gainer" was a series that had a lot of potential that it ultimately didn't capitalize on. There were really clever moments that I loved, like Gainer confessing his love to his high school sweetheart to defeat the mind reading tactics of an opponent, and the backstory and setting of the world could have been really interesting, but it seems to much of that was just kind of left aside. I enjoyed watching the series and I don't regret buying it. The action and the fights were well executed, and the plot was serviceable. Above average overall and certainly better than some of the shonen romantic comedy crap I've been watching fansubs of lately, but your mileage may vary.

-ZK